A Day of Dressage and Chopsticks

I believe that one of the most important things we can do with the children, who are in our care, is to work with them on their socialization. Learning to say, please and thank you. Learning to care for books, going to a restaurant and having good manners. Everyday things for children who live with families but when you live in an institution that doesn't happen. Our children have had water color art classes for over two years. The children's work is wonderful. Three of our children go to horse back riding lessons every week. They are learning show jumping. We can't keep children behind guarded gates, never leave and then expect them to do well in social situations. So when I have the chance to take the oldest kids with me I do. I want them to see more of the world than they know. I want them to eat Chinese food and try chopsticks. I want them to see a kid, who looks just like them, win awards for her riding amongst groups of white people. I want them to learn they are as good as all those other people that might look down on them. And so on Saturday I took our three horse back riders from the children's home and my two horse back riders to the dressage competition on Saturday and Sunday. My daughter, Gaby was competing both days with her horse, Cornucopia. Gaby is in second place, in the training level for dressage, for Guatemala. She has not been dressage rider previously but started adding dressage to her show jumping to be a better rounded rider.

After the competition we went to lunch at a new Chinese restaurant. I figured we'd forget about the manners because I knew they would love the chopsticks.

It was a fun day for all of us. The kids came home with me and they watched several movies and then went home for the night. Such great kids, all of them.